Brothers
by Zelda Ophelia
Summary: Samantha Flack sees a familiar face outside her apartment building.


Ugh. Her feet were killing her. These were not the best shoes to wear for a six hour shift on your feet followed by a long walk home. But she was still new enough at work that she wanted - no needed - to impress her boss if she wanted to still have a job after the holiday rush, which mean wearing the dressier - though more painful - shoes all day long. If nothing else, this had been the evidence she needed that going back to school was what she needed to do. Bartending was out, for good - she didn't need that kind of temptation, and she was quickly learning that retail just wasn't her thing.

Glancing down at the recruitment brochure in her hand, she replayed the conversation she'd had before going into work. Her brother wasn't the only one in the family who wanted to help people, she just didn't want to carry a gun to do it. And with all those years of bartending, you really do get good practice at listening to people. She had always been interested in social work, but unlike bartending you needed a degree to do it. Now, however, that degree sounded really good, especially when one of the best schools in the country was here in the city. With scholarships for so called non-traditional students. Who would have thought that taking a few years to be the family screw up before deciding to start over qualified her for a scholarship?

Sighing in relief to see her apartment up ahead, she picked up the pace, she was almost home. Only to pause when she noticed the flashing red and blue lights that were parked directly in front of her building. Resigning herself to spending even more time in these shoes, she approached the building cautiously. There were a couple of uniforms there, with another exiting the building to speak to a dark haired woman using a cell phone - the detective in charge most likely. The woman looked familiar, and for a moment she sincerely hoped she hadn't run into her when she had gotten into trouble.

"We're working on it." The detective, she could see the badge on her belt now, said to the person she was on the phone with. "There was no answer at the apartment-"

"Ma'am" One of the uniforms interrupted, inclining his head at her.

"Let me call you back." The detective turned and looked at her. "Samantha Flack?"

Yeah, she definitely look familiar. Wondering just which of her friends had gotten into trouble - or gotten her into trouble - now, Sam nodded. "That would be me, Detective-"

"Angell. I work with your brother. Which you already knew." She seemed a cross between nervous and relieved, which only confused Sam even more. "I'm going to need you to come with me."

"I'm not in trouble, am I?"

"No. No. Um, your dad-"

"Is Dad okay?" Sam could fill that hollow pit forming in her stomach. For all their outs, she still worried about her family. Dad was supposed to be fine - stay safe - now that he was retired, but his health wasn't what it used to be.

"He's at the hospital. But he should be fine-" Detective Angell's cell phone started ringing and she rolled her eyes after seeing the caller ID. "Just a sec." Angell answered the phone. "Yes, we found her. Yes, she's fine. I'll call you back."

Despite her worry, Sam still had to bite back a small smile as Angell then hung up on the caller and turned back to her. "Sorry, your brother is under strict orders to stay at the precinct right now, which means he's doing his best to climb the walls and drive everyone crazy."

"That's Donnie for you."

"Tell me about it." Sam thought she heard Angell mutter as they headed to her car, flinching a bit when her foot twisted and her shoe bit even further into her skin.

"You okay?" Angell asked, offering a hand to help her keep her balance.

"Yeah, just had these on too long." She steadied herself, then - expecting the worst and hoping for the best - asked. "So, what happened?"

"You ever hear of a Jimmy Koster?"

"One of Dad's last cases, right before he retired." Sam could feel her muscles tense and shivered - not just because of the cold. She had stopped by Dad's one night when he was working the case. He had been back taking a shower, but the case file had been open on the kitchen table. She didn't think she'd ever get the pictures of those women out of her head, and she'd used a lot of alcohol to try to chase them away. "It was a bad one, he was pretty... brutal."

"He escaped from prison last night." Angell explained, opening the passenger door of the car for her. "So far today he's taken shots at both your dad and Don. Like I said, your Dad is in the hospital. He was just grazed, and he should be fine, but the Chief wants him to stay there so they can have an armed guard on him. Don is fine, though a bit cranky-" Sam couldn't help but snort in amusement at that assessment of her brother "-and very worried about you. No offense, but expect a long lecture about keeping your cell phone on and charged and letting people know where you are at all times once we get there."

This time Sam rolled her eyes. "I was at work. You know, that thing you do during the day to make money to live on."

Angell snickered softly from the seat next to her. "Don't you just love older brothers?"

"You have one too?"

"Four."

"Ouch. And I thought just Donnie was bad-"

The shrill ring of Angell's cell phone interrupted them again. She pulled it out and glanced down at the caller ID before handing the phone to Sam, turning her eyes back to the traffic around them. "Here. He's not going to settle down until he talks to you. Maybe you can get the lectures out of the way before you actually see him."

Beginning to relax for the first time since she'd seen the cop cars parked in front of her building, Sam accepted Angell's phone and answered it. "Hello?"

"Jess is- Wait. Sam? Sam is that you? Are you okay? Where have you been?"

"Hey Donnie. I'm fine. We're on our way there."

"Good." Sam could hear what sounded like a sigh of relief come over the phone. Then he started in. "Where have you been? And why weren't you answering your cell phone? Why weren't you at home? No one knew where you were! You could have been dead in a gutter for all I knew!"

She slowly tipped the phone away from her ear, letting Don's tirade drift out into the car, Angell chuckling softly from the driver's seat. iBrothers./i


End file.
